History VideoGame / MassEffect1

* JoinTheArmyTheySaid: If you speak to the surviving marines on Nepmos after helping them HoldTheLine, they'll say, "'Join the marines, see the galaxy.' Hell."

** Using the Mako to ram infantry enemies can result in one hit kills, but the larger enemies do not suffer any damage. It ''does'', however, temporarily stun them. Makes it much easier to take out Armatures, Colossi, Juggernauts, and Primes, because they fall over and take a while to get back up. Killing things with the Mako, however, reduces the experience you get by a significant factor.

** [[TakeAThirdOption Taking a third option]] on Noveria by ratting out Opold to Anoleis in exchange for the garage pass you need can lock you out of the entire Gianna Parasini/Lorik Qi'in mission path, also meaning that Parasini won't appear in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: It has been repeatedly stated that one being a Spectre is something you are "born" with or chosen for. Specifically, it's not a military rank, but a title given to those who have proven that their actions and judgement are worthy in the Citadel Council's eyes. Even then, they have other reasons to given you the status. Specifically, [[spoiler:while already considered, given your background, they make you in order to chase down Saren, another Spectre that is proven to treacherous to keep; if only to not risk war by sending a fleet after him.]]

* ShipperOnDeck: Ashley's sisters will ship her and male Shepard in a voice mail or--if Shepard tells Liara that he and Ashley are "just friends" beforehand--her and Kaidan. The latter she laughs about. The former depends on how you treat her.

** Until downing Saren causes a nasty feedback loop that disables its shields, the battle against Sovereign was going this way in the Reaper's favor. Despite two entire fleets attacking it and Sovereign barely putting up an effort to fight back, it {{No Sell}}s virtually everything thrown at it and convinces some in the Alliance fleet that it was unbeatable until the crucial moment.

* DiegeticCharacterCreation: If you choose to create a custom Commander Shepard, it's presented as the Alliance military database's files on them being corrupted and needing to be manually reentered.

* FamousFamousFictional: The names of the systems in the Armstrong Nebula are all named after famous astronauts, save the last found, Grissom, after the ''Mass Effect'' character John Grissom. Though it's downplayed, since it's possible it was also named after Gus Grissom, one of the three astronauts that died in the Apollo 1 disaster.

* JustThinkOfThePotential: The Citadel: Homecoming assignment involves a dead soldier's body and whether or not it's right to keep it from her husband for study. Unlike most examples, the corporate figure invoking this trope is played more sympathatically, as they hope that researching the injuries the wife sustained will allow them to develop countermeasuers to save more lives.

* JustThinkOfThePotential: The Citadel: Homecoming assignment involves a dead soldier's body and whether or not it's right to keep it from her husband for study.

* OhCrap: The Council races appear to have had a moment of this during the First Contact War, in which humanity both introduced itself to the wider galaxy and proved they're as good at war as the turians are. Turian battle doctrine is to not only defeat an enemy but to keep them from ever being a threat again, usually with the employment of weapons of mass destruction and things like the genophage, and given our species' history it's hard to argue that humanity is much more forgiving. So just before these two almighty armies started wiping each other out, the Council arranged a ceasefire to end the conflict before it escalated and formally invited humanity to join the Galactic Community. (They also forced to turians to pay reparations since they were the ones who started the whole thing with an unprovoked and unauthorized attack on a brand-new species.)

* OhCrap: The Council races appear to have had a moment of this during the First Contact War, in which humanity both introduced itself to the wider galaxy and proved they're as good at war as the turians are. Turian battle doctrine is to not only defeat an enemy but to keep them from ever being a threat again, usually with the employment of weapons of mass destruction and things like the genophage, and given our species' history it's hard to argue that humanity is much more forgiving. So just before these two almighty armies started wiping each other out, the Council called a halt and formally invited humanity to join the Citadel.

** Visiting Barla Von and hiring Wrex skips a few scenes (the discussion with Harkin, and Wrex's introduction scene). Also, [[OptionalPartyMember Garrus becomes missable]].
** Ending the Citadel: Asari Consort assignment before completing the Citadel: Xeltan's Complaint assignment prevents you from receiving a trinket that, in turn, unlocks an event on Eletania in the Attican Beta system.

* EerieArticResearchStation: Peak 15, an isolated research station on Noveria filled with the few surviving scientists and guards, who are getting increasingly on-edge after several days of repeat attacks from demented rachni. Apparently it was pretty eerie even before then, thanks to the total isolation.

* RomanceSidequest: Three of them: xenophobic but principled [[ActionGirl Ashley]], soft-spoken and thoughtful [[MrFanservice Kaidan]], and awkward but caring Liara. The first two are strictly attracted to opposite gender Shepards only, while Liara can go either way.

* RomanceSidequest: Three of them: xenophobic but principled [[ActionGirl Ashley]], soft-spoken and thoughtful [[MrFanservice Kaidan]], and awkward but caring [[HotScientist Liara]]. The first two are strictly attracted to opposite gender Shepards only, while Liara can go either way.

** A more obscure feature is that all of your squadmates also have Paragon and Renegade leanings, and those can be manipulated based on your decisions when talking to them and resolving their personal quests. The main use for this is during major story decisions, which will see the two squadmates you brought with you arguing over the decision, with the sides they represent depending on their personal morality in relation to each other. This means for example that Garrus can find himself arguing for the Paragon choice if he is with Wrex, but the Renegade option if he is with Liara or Kaiden. This also means that with the right dialogue options you can completely flip your squadmate's morality; it ''is'' possible to get [[spoiler:Wrex to argue in favor of saving the Council, and Kaiden to argue against it]] for example.

* WithAllDueRespect: Kaidan to Ashley on which one gets to put their life on the line for the salarian STG (made even more amusing by the fact that Kaidan actually outranks Ashley, and only says "with all due respect" because he's excessively polite). [[DeadpanSnarker Ashley's]] reply provides the page quote:

** [=ExoGeni=] [[spoiler:purposely infected colonists with alien spores to see what effect it would have. When knowledge of this got out, they decided to [[KillEmAll repurpose the colony]]. They also shipped a number of Husks and Thorian Creepers off to Cerberus]].

* KillEmAll: An alarming amount of the assignments where you're sent to find someone end up with them dead by the time you get there. Occasionally, you end up having to kill the person you were sent to find.

** On Noveria, to reactivate Mira, the Peak 15 VI, you can either fiddle around with a Tower of Hanoi puzzle or you can just spend 100 omnigel. It's a good idea to convert the crap gear that drops at low levels so you can have the omnigel recquired.

* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: Refuse to let Tali have the geth info acquired at the end of the Armstrong Cluster mission, and from that point on she'll refuse to speak to you on the ''Normandy'' again.